Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Ryan Bodie's current passion, streaming live events, has established his company, Florida-based Studio 26 Productions, as the go-to live event webcast provider in his region and in some key entertainment areas, ranging from concert series in the spring to festivals in the summer and one-off arena gigs like a Chaka Khan show. Bodie estimates that his crew does roughly 80 live events per year, with maybe half of those involving music.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | EventDV is closing its doors after 7 exciting years in the event filmmaking industry. Editor Stephen Nathans-Kelly says farewell in words and in a PSA clip produced by Whit Wales of Wales Films.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | IN[FOCUS] co-founder Chris P. Jones discusses plans for IN[FOCUS] 2012, including dates (Jan 16-19), location (Charleston, SC) and theme (THE LEGACY), how the theme and location connect, and what first-time and longtime IN[FOCUS] attendees can expect to learn and experience at the event.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | The men will have to continue to wonder what really goes on at POSH: A Retreat for the Female Filmmaker, but women who didn't make the 2010 event—as well as 2010 attendees who've been wondering what Team POSH will do for an encore—will get a chance to find out what all the excitement is about on November 6 when POSH 2011 kicks off in Cancun, Mexico. Last week I spoke with POSH co-founders Reagan Zugelter and Jennifer Moon to get the scoop on POSH 2011. Here's what I found out.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | It isn't really the rage of the "disruptive moment" in genre-defining indie film Return of the Secaucus 7 that makes it so powerful; rather it is the editing and the stylistic contrast that sets it off so jarringly from the rest of the film and suggests all sorts of analogous possibilities in our own work for bringing dramatic resolution to films that are inherently short on conflict.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Recently, I had the strange and wonderful privilege of watching a contemporary home birth film that is not explicitly about advocating home birth or dramatizing childbirth, although in its own way, it achieves both. Produced by two Central Florida studios, Kat Small's Cinema Chic Films and the Nielsens Photography & Design, Born at Home is an intimate and inspiring family film.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | How 5-time EventDV 25 all-star David Robin pulled off his electrifying wedding-day music video, "The Time (Dirty Bit)," and how the Black Eyed Peas parody became a viral sensation.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | While Stuart Sweetow's Corporate Video Production is not about event filmmakers succeeding in corporate video per se, it's a terrific guidebook for filmmakers and videographers who have honed their shooting, editing, and business chops in other areas of professional production and who want to make inroads into the corporate world.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Your approach to soundtracks and sound design should not only reflect the sound you hear in your head when you conceptualize your films, but also the places you hope and expect your films to play and the reach and impact you expect them to have.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | In March 2010, following the announcement of the EventDV 25, we announced a group of 25 finalists, which were essentially numbers 26-50, the filmmakers and studios with the 25 highest vote totals after the top 25. This year we decided to approach it a little differently, and following the 2010 EventDV 25 Awards Shows that premiered last week, recognizing our current crop of industry all-stars, we've prepared a list of EventDV 25 Rising Stars, celebrating studios that narrowly missed the EventDV 25 in the voting this year, and have either never made the list before, but have made it once and are young and fresh and rising fast in the industry and sure to find themselves on the list in the future. In keeping with the old baseball theme of the EventDV 25, I thought we'd field a team of 9, enough to cover all the positions on a baseball diamond. So, without further ado, I present the EventDV 25 Rising Stars of 2010.

Welcome to the 2010 EventDV 25 Awards Show, presenting the 25 hottest and most influential event filmmaking studios in the world as elected by the readers of EventDV Magazine and EventDV.net. Your new all-star team will be presented here over the course of 5 days--February 28-March 4, 2011. Watch the shows in the video windows for the awards presentation, including samples of the all-stars' finest work. (Video players will fill in as the shows go live at 9am CST on successive days this week.)

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | For the vast majority of wedding and event filmmakers, a customer/client base is a local thing. Though EventDV 25 All-Stars Travis and Candice Cossel of Serendipity Studios had done some destination and out-of-market weddings in the past, they were taking a huge risk when they abandoned a rock-solid brand presence and referral base in Boise and moved their home and business to the more lucrative but much less familiar Miami market in October. What plans did they put in place to soften their landing and hit the ground running, and what lessons does their approach have to teach other studios considering rolling the dice and relocating?

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | If you want to turn the events you shoot into compelling films, you need to understand the essential elements of visual storytelling and narrative and how the great nonfiction filmmakers conceive, shape, and present their films. The most important part of that process, ultimately, will be watching those films, deconstructing them, and applying those constructs to your own work. But I can't recommend a better place to start your journey than reading Sheila Curran Bernard's Documentary Storytelling, which will put you well on your way.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | You may have heard about IN[FOCUS] 2011, an educational gathering for event filmmakers and videographers coming in January, and you may have heard reference to its "Gateway" theme. But what exactly is "The Gateway," what can it tell us about what's in store at IN[FOCUS] 2011, and how does it relate to the event organizers' "survive, thrive, and serve" educational mission?

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | If The Promise teaches us anything, it's that the one thing you can't sacrifice is authority over your own work, regardless of how circumstances—financial or otherwise—conspire against you.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Does 3D have a place in wedding filmmaking's future, or is that notion just the stuff of science fiction? We spoke with one of 3D's earliest adopters in the wedding world, Abraham Joffe of Sydney, Australia. A few months back, Joffe produced and delivered a 3D wedding film—Australia's first, but already not its last—and lived to tell the tale.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Is it possible to use Gregg Toland's deep focus cinematography technique evocatively in wedding filmmaking in the heyday of DSLRs, an era defined by shallow depth of field, focus pulls, close-ups, cuts, and multi-angle coverage? Or does our era really have to be defined so sharply, or so narrowly? Here's hoping someone among us does try the Toland route sometime soon, and that the effort doesn't get blurred out in the shallow-focus collective memory that ultimately packages our time for future generations.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | If you're in this business for real, working full time and supporting a family with it, there's something to be said for having the flexibility to make some compromises here and there to support the work you really want to do. But if your business leaves no room for work that represents the things you believe your films should represent and all you're doing is pandering to the perceived demands of your market, there are much easier ways to make a living, and ones that wouldn't so much contradict your vision or beliefs as simply sidestep them. As Rick Nelson said, "If memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck."

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | How Life Stage Films' Matt Davis, in 5 short years, went from humble missionary to EventDV 25 honoree, sought-after speaker, Head Coach of Wedding Videography ... and humble missionary

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Welcome to the event filmmaking industry's first all-women event, POSH: a retreat and educational experience for women event filmmakers and photographers interested in event film

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | After realizing that the recession-era summer of 2009 was the rare wedding season when business was slow enough to allow him the flexibility to do pro bono work—Fowler took the job as behind-the-scenes videographer for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when it came to his hometown. And he was glad he did because, for all its TV trappings, this was a great project—and a great community project at that.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | So what is City of Lakes, and why all the hype and excitement surrounding a wedding film that no one had even seen when this article went live? To find out, read the article and check out the WORLD PREMIERE, Wednesday, April 14, Brenden Theater, Palms, Las Vegas. (Details in the article.)

As a coda to the 2009 EventDV 25 awards presentation, here are the 25 finalists who round out the rest of the "Top 50"—some familiar names, and a number of up-and-comers about whom we're sure to hear much more, along with some choice clips for our finalists' many fans.

Welcome to the 2009 EventDV 25 Awards Show, presenting the 25 hottest and most influential event filmmaking studios in the world as elected by the readers of EventDV Magazine and EventDV.net. Your new all-star team will be presented over the course of 4 days--February 22-25, 2010--on EventDV-TV. Click here to see editor Steve Nathans-Kelly reveal the all-stars announced so far and show some of their signature work.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | How wedding and sports event videographer Danny Sayson developed, shot, and produced a full season of West Coast Adventures entirely on spec, pitched and sold it to PBS-TV, and became a full-time TV producer with one season under his belt and a second in production.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Wedding-day interviews are the sort of thing that used to give videography a bad name, but done right, and in the right setting, interviews can help elevate wedding and event filmmaking into the realm of powerful, character-driven storytelling. Here we learn from four leading wedding and event filmmakers renowned for the compelling, revealing, funny, and moving stories they collect in their interviews with the key players in their events, and the seamless and powerful ways they incorporate these interviews into the films they produce.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | WEVA Expo 2009 delivered a bold mix of new speakers, live streaming experiments, discussions of fusion trends present and future, and a rollicking networking experience in a crackerjack new venue that seemed almost tailor-made for the wedding and event video industry's largest convention and tradeshow.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | A conversation with Zacuto's Steve Weiss about his groundbreaking webisodic TV series, FilmFellas, which, beginning this week, will air a series of programs starring five legends of the wedding and event filmmaking world: John Goolsby, Kristen*, Joe Simon, Patrick Moreau, Kevin Shahinian, and Ron Dawson

With the launch of the new Re:Frame website morning, the Re:Frame Collective revealed dates, location, a (nearly) complete speaker roster, and some tantalizing details about what RF:SF 09 attendees can expect for the three-and-a-half day event, which will take place at San Francisco's toney CLIFT Hotel in the heart of Union Square, October 19-22, 2009

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Like a rescued and refurb'd Super8, a 5D Mark II is an amazing tool for capturing what you see. But the cameras and the vision have to work hand in hand, much like style and story.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | The same mindset that makes a commissioned architect an artist—approaching the job as an opportunity to explore ideas and realize a vision—also makes an event videographer a filmmaker.

Introduced several years ago as a 2-DVD set called Business Everlasting and later expanded into The Complete Course with a 3-ring binder chock full of useful content, Alan Naumann's definitive memorial videography training kit has been recently updated with a variety of helpful materials.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | A discussion of the use of inanimate objects in art film to convey shades of meaning and character development in Paul Auster's new book sent me in search of examples of this same technique used powerfully in wedding video. Here's what I found, and why it works.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Pixelpops' fast & Fabulous Volume 1—a rapid-fire assortment of great graphics tips—is that it not only transcends the limitations of many of the tutorial DVDs we see, but as a download-only Flash-based title, it also sidesteps one of the primary shortcomings of DVD as an instructional medium.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | The latest installments in Mark & Trisha Von Lanken's definitive series on motion techniques for wedding and event video shooters picks up right where MCT I left off and adds tips for handheld cameras, and provides fascinating behind-the-scenes looks at first-dance shooting and how the Von Lankens cover bride and groom prep. Essential stuff.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Re:Frame re:loads and announces its first 2009 event: Re:Frame Austin, set for April 27-29 in a hotbed of indie filmmaking innovation and featuring StillMotion's Patrick Moreau and world-famous British DOP, editor, and cinematographer Philip Bloom

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | What happens when nine leading wedding filmmakers who met online get together in New Orleans to discuss the future of wedding videography? In a word, Re:Frame. But what exactly is Re:Frame, who's behind it, and how do they plan to reframe the image of the wedding video industry, beginning with the self-image of wedding videographers themselves?

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | There are as many ways to see and cultivate the event video industry as there are ways to frame a shot, and more potential all-stars than you could possibly fit on a conference speaker roster or a 25-member all-star team. What does the 2007 EventDV 25 teach us about the current state of this industry?

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Since we published our November 2007 cover story on the emerging "Trash the Dress" trend, the trashing-bashing missives have come fast and furious. The problem here is that symbols like wedding dresses mean different things to different people.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | One of the few constants in the video industry is the endless barrage of new products and technologies that—if you let them dictate your equipment choices—will put you out of business faster than yelling "Free Bird" all through the first dance.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | In the three years we've been doing EventDV, relationships between event videographers and photographers have ranged all over the map. Open hostility is less prevalent than it used to be, cordiality makes good business, and cooperation makes for reliable references. But given the commonality of the two crafts, what about stepping beyond cooperation to collaboration?

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | Most videographers who are familiar with Joel Peregrine and his reputation for producing world-class cinematic wedding video from five-camera one-man-band wedding shoots have two questions: Is it true, and how does he do it? Here we find out, following Peregrine through a typical wedding, culminating in a wedding-day edit.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | With its auspicious blue glow, the Bravo XR Disc Publisher ($3,295) is everything you'd expect from a stackable, rackmountable counterpart to Primera's popular Bravo II: it's a fast, efficient, rock-solid automated DVD/CD publishing system that delivers great print quality and a refreshing runs-right-out-of-the-box experience. But the real joy in testing this unit came in discovering the wonders of WaterShield water-resistant inkjet media, which add a glossy and eminently professional sheen to photo-quality inkjet-printed discs.

Stephen Nathans-Kelly | "Trash the Dress" has become one of the hottest trends in wedding photography today, and it's beginning to find its way into the wedding videography world as well. Here's a look behind the scenes at what may have been the first-ever videographer-driven Trash the Dress shoot, documenting the travails of a jilted bride on a bone-dry August day in the Nevada desert.

Stephen F. Nathans | Rebecca Mead's One Perfect Day takes on the modern wedding industry and the crass commercialism she claims has overrun it. Because this book has been widely publicized and will be widely read, regardless of its merits, we all need to know what's in it.